Jealous boyfriend’s accomplice gets 18-year sentence in beating death of man on Roanoke Avenue in November 2020

A 23-year-old man involved in the November 2020 robbery and murder of a man who was found dead in the back of his pickup truck on Roanoke Avenue was sentenced today to 18 years in prison with five years of post-release supervision. 

Dennis Jonathan Hernandez Abanao pleaded guilty last September to Attempted Murder in the Second Degree — a class B felony — in his role in the robbery and murder of Marco Grisales of East Hampton, according to District Attorney Raymond Tierney.

Evidence at the December 2022 trial of co-defendant Alcides Lopez Cambara, 42, who was convicted of second-degree murder, showed that Hernandez Abanao was an accomplice in the robbery and murder of Grisales. Lopez Cambara became jealous when Grisales called Lopez Cambara’s girlfriend, Tyara Lemus and asked her to hang out with him on his birthday on Nov. 11, 2020. Lopez Cambara devised a plot to rob Grisales.

Lopez Cambara and Lemus recruited two individuals, Hernandez Abanao and an unidentified male, to help Lopez Cambara rob Grisales, prosecutors said.

“Lemus set up a meeting with Grisales at a McDonald’s in Riverhead. After meeting Grisales, Lemus got into his pickup truck and drove with him to a nearby buffalo farm to party,” according to a press release from the district attorney’s office.

Lopez Cambara, Hernandez Abanao and the unidentified male were already at the farm, waiting to rob Grisales, the DA said.

After Lemus and Grisales parked, Lopez Cambara and the unidentified male dragged Grisales out of the car and bludgeoned him to death with the barrel of a shotgun, according to prosecutors. Hernandez Abanao and Lemus stole jewelry and other valuables from the victim’s vehicle. Lopez Cambara tore a gold chain from the victim’s neck, then the three men put his lifeless body in the bed of his own pickup truck. Lopez Cambara then drove the pickup truck a short distance from the scene and parked it on Roanoke Avenue, partially blocking the roadway, prosecutors said. A passerby reported the disabled vehicle to police. Riverhead police officers found the victim’s body in the bed of the truck.

In the days following the murder, Lemus, using an alias, called police, and provided information about the other individuals involved in the crime, the DA said. On Dec. 9, 2020, Lemus and Lopez Cambara were arrested and charged with the murder and robbery of Grisales.

After his conviction at trial, Lopez Cambara was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison last month. Lemus was sentenced to eight years in prison plus three years post-release supervision after pleading guilty to Robbery in the First Degree for her role in the crime.

Hernandez Abanao was arrested on May 22, 2021 and on Sept. 21, 2022 pleaded guilty to Attempted Murder in the Second Degree.

Lemus testified at the trial and gave a detailed description of both Lopez Cambara’s and Hernandez Abanao’s involvement in the robbery and murder. Her testimony was corroborated by surveillance videos from both a McDonald’s and nearby hospital that captured Grisales’s pickup and the defendant’s vehicle as they traveled to the location of the murder, as well as cell site records from both Lemus and Lopez Cambara’s cell phones, the DA said. The evidence also included items recovered during the execution of a search warrant at the home shared by Lopez Cambara and Lemus, including the victim’s jewelry and the shotgun used to bludgeon the victim, which was adorned with a distinctive bejeweled skull. Finally, a download of Lemus’s phone led to the recovery of WhatsApp conversations wherein Lemus and the defendant discussed their plan to lure the victim to the location of the murder.

Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Anthony Senft Jr. imposed the sentence on Hernandez Abanao Tuesday.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Dena Rizopoulos and James O’Rourke
of the Major Crimes Bureau.